The soviet system at work

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THE SOVIET
SYSTEM AT WORK

ROBERT WILLIAMS

(in Russian Dress)

A Series of Articles contracted for
but refused by the " Daily Mail "

"By ROBERT WILLIAMS

t Member of the Labour Delegation)

THE SOVIET
SYSTEM AT WORK

'By

ROBERT WILLIAMS

(member of the labour delegation)

J< Jl Jt

London :

THE COMMUNIST PARTY

1 6 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2

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FOREWORD

In writing a foreword to the series of four
articles which have appeared in the Daily Herald,
but which should have appeared in the Daily Mail,
I have to explain how the latter journal refused
to print what they had asked for from me, namely,
" my experiences and observations."

A few days before leaving London for Russia,
I was told by a regular contributor* to the Mail
that that paper was anxious that some member of
the delegation, preferably myself, should agree to
contribute a series of articles upon the return of
the delegation. I was asked to see Mr. Valentine
Williams, the Foreign Editor, with a view to
determining certain points which required to be
made clear. I suggested that they knew my views
very well, and that I wanted a free hand to say
exactly what I thought required saying regarding
Soviet structure of government or anything else
with which I required to deal. The following
letter speaks for itself : —

Daily Mail : Editorial Department,
Carmelite House,

London, E.C.4.
April 23rd, 1920.
Dear Sir,

In confirmation of our telephone conver-
sation this evening we shall be glad to arrange
with you to write us four articles about your
experiences and observations in Russia as a
member of the Trade Union Delegation

M^03619

4 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

visiting the Soviet Republic, to be signed
with your name and to be written exclusively
for the Daily Mail. These articles should be
about two-thirds of a column in length and
we will pay for them at the rate of 20 guineas
a column.

I should be very glad to have a talk with
you before you start if we could arrange a
meeting between this and Tuesday. I will
telephone you in the morning with a view to
arranging this.

Yours faithfully,

G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS,

Foreign Editor.
Robert Williams, Esq.,
8, St. Martin's Place.

Let me say that the figure of twenty guineas was
fixed at my own suggestion because I had no desire
to undercut any writer for the Daily Mail or any
other newspaper.

On arriving at King's Cross from Russia on
June 30th I again saw the contributor to the Mail
already referred to. He asked me if I had any-
thing to say for publication. I replied that I had
two of the promised articles in manuscript which
would be typed forthwith' and senif to the Mail
ofRce immediately. When I reached my own
office, one of the sub-editors of the Mail asked over
the telephone whether the typescript was ready
of the first article, to which the reply was that it
would reach the Editorial Department within a few
minutes. I fulfilled my part of the contract, and
was surprised to find the following morning that,
although great anxiety had been expressed regard-
ing the delivery of the typescript, not a word
appeared.

I quite naturally drew the conclusion that the
Mail was expecting from me the kind of things

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 5

which were being said by Mr. Keeling and also by
another member of the delegation. They were
prepared to print any and every attack upon the
Soviet Government, but with the customary
attitude of the British Press they did not welcome
anything which tended to show the strength of the
Soviet organisation and forms of Goverment. I
spoke to Mr. Valentine Williams, and he was
anxious that I should change the form of the
articles : that in effect I should write according to
the instructions of the Daily MaiU I explained to
him that there had been plenty offering diverse
criticisms of the Soviet regime, and that they need
not be afraid of my four columns in the paper.
Moreover, in view of the smashing attacks made
against the dupes of the Polish Barons by the Red
Army it was essential that people if they desired
to be well-informed should know something of the
strength of the nation which was behind the Red
Army.

At Mr. Valentine William's suggestion. I sub-
mitted the second article, which it appeared was
even less aceptable than the first, and in a second
telephonic conversation he said that they were
unable to print them as they stood.

I do not apologise for writing for the Daily Mail
or any other capitalist newspaper. I think that of
the upwards of a million readers of that paper
there must be some to whom the truth would do
no harm, and I suggested that the Mail had every
opportunity of attacking my views in its leaders or
elsewhere in the paper. However, when it was
made clear that they had no intention to print the
articles as they stood ; and when I indicated equally
clearly that I had no intention of altering what I
said, I informed Mr. Valentine Williams that the
articles had better be returned and I would make
other use of them. I received the articles by
return, accornpanied by the following letter : —

6 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

Daily Mail : Editorial Department,
Carmelite House,

London, E.C.4.
Personal July 1st, 1920.

Dear Mr. Williams,

I propose to avail myself of your suggestion
to return the two articles on your impressions
of Soviet Russia. I am sorry there has been
a misunderstanding about them.

Believe me.

Yours faithfully,

G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS,

Foreign Editor.
Robert Williams, Esq.

The articles then appeared in the Daily Herald,
and the British Socialist Party has suggested that
they should be issued as a pamphlet with as wide
a circulation as possible, and be printed in full,
which was impossible for space reasons in the
Herald. Opportunities would be afforded for wide
publicity by the distribution of the pamphlet at
Socialist meetings, through Socialist branches, and
more particularly at the meetings to be held in
connection with the '' Hands Off Russia " Cam-
paign. It was my intention to enlarge materially
upon the subject-matter of the four articles, but
pressure of work leaves me little or no opportunity
so to do.

I will supplement the foregoing by saying that
in my judgment and in the judgment of our comrade
Lenin, it is essential that the Socialists of the Left
must achieve unity if they are to carry on success-
fully the work of emancipating the working-class
from capitalism and landlordism. Far-reaching
events are pending in Eastern Europe which will

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 7

have the profoundest effect upon the Western
nations. We have seen the Red Annies, and
while we were in Russia we realised that the Poles
would not withstand their military efficiency coupled
with their physical and moral energy.

The movement in Great Britain has been chaotic
because of our intense individualism and because
we possess many forms of liberty without the
content of liberty. The imminent breakdown of
the capitalist system makes it imperative that we
should subordinate our individualisms, our own
personal conceptions regarding tactics, and our own
futile sectionalisms in order to consolidate all the
forces of the Left.

In a conversation I had with Lenin I asked him
whether in view of the need for peace so manifest
in Russia the delegates should on their return con-
centrate all their energies and efforts on the restora-
tion of peace and the opening up of trade relation-
ships between Great Britain and Russia ; or whether
we should assiduously propagate the ideas of the
Third International and work consistently and
systematically for the overthrow of capitalism in
Western Europe which might for a time prevent
Russia from getting those things of which she
stood in so paramount a need. Lenin's reply was
incisive and conclusive :

'' Let those who believe in peace work for
peace; and let those who believe in Com-
munism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
work for the overthrow of Capitalism."
He indicated further that in his judgment the
capitalists of Western Europe and of America would
not and could not make a real peace between
themselves and Soviet Russia for the simple reason
that the great Communistic experiment would
offer such an example to the proletarians of the
whole world that it would provide more forceful
propaganda by example than all our precepts.

e THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

Purcell and I and others, therefore, have
returned from Russia to offer such encouragement
as we may to the attempts to form a definite Com-
munist Party based upon the unalterable conception
of proletarian or working-class dictatorship. The
influence of definitely Socialist organisations upon
the vast mass of the people in the past has been
small because of the exclusiveness of Socialist
teaching. We have to make it increasingly clear
to the workers — and especially the manual workers
— that there is no hope of any real improvement
in their economic status unless and until they
break the vicious system of capitalism which
exploits them. We have to show them that
Proletarian Dictatorship can only come by means of
the assumption of control of the mines, factories,
workshops, railways, docks, and means of pro-
duction and transport generally. Every intelligent
trade unionist must be made the centre of organisa-
tion and propaganda of the idea of the proletarian
control of industry. There is no reason why within
a year, the membership of the New Communist
Party should not be as great as that of the Com-
munist Party in Russia, namely, 650,000 members.

During the transitional period which lies ahead
there must be a great measure of discipline,
mutually imposed and mutually accepted by those
who will join in the fight for the triumph of com-
munist ideas. When the movement was in that
stage of develpment when many of our schemes
were impracticable because of the want of economic
preparedness, we could all do much as we liked
and say what we would, but during the coming
months we must ourselves give and expect from
others as much solidarity and loyalty to the
decisions and programme of the Communist Party
as we expect trade unionists to give to their fellows
in an industrial dispute. Individuals there will be
of course who cannot and will not work under

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 9

these disciplinary influences. They will always
remain a law unto themselves, but faced with the
stubborn fight which lies immediately ahead many
or most will subordinate their own personal con-
ceptions as to the right measures, methods and
tactics to the general will of the members of
the Party.

There are many in this country who believe
the Revolution can be achieved and will be achieved
without force. We must respect their convictions ;
we must solicit their assistance. We must go on
by every means in our power to make our policy
of direct action effective, and when the time comes
that the proprietary classes will refuse to yield
one jot or tittle, we must be prepared to act in
defence of ourselves and the proletarian interests
we claim to represent. There must be a good deal
of tolerance from each section of Socialist thought
to the other. Lenin has said again and again,
and the members of the Communist Party in Russia
are largely with him : — We must use Parliamentary
and other electoral platforms as a means of propa-
ganda never relying upon Parliament to give us
control of land and industrial capital, but working
steadfastly towards promoting a conception in the
minds of the toiling masses that '' Those who would
be free must themselves strike the blow."

In conclusion, let me quote the text which hung
over our hotel in Moscow, and which met our eyes
whenever we left or entered :

" We started the Revolution, comrades —
we started it alone; let us finish it together.''

ROBERT WILLIAMS.

THE SOVIET SYSTEM
AT WORK

To visit Russia under the Soviet Regime is quite
unlike visiting any other country. When one goes
to Paris, Berlin, Brussels, or Vienna for the first
time, one realises after a time that they are all at the
basis very much like London. In Petrograd and
Moscow, however, there is to be found an entirely
new civilisation. I use the word deliberately,
because it. is utterly useless trying to destroy or
even to modify the Soviet system by maligning it,
or pretending that it is what it palpably is not ; or
that it is not what it is. We see in Russia an
effort planned and systematically carried out to
place a new value on human qualifications, in fact,
to supersede any aristocracy of birth or wealth
by an aristocracy of ability. That men and women
should be estimated and appraised not by whom
they are or what they have, but by what they do.

As one of the members of the British Labour
delegation to Russia, I went frankly and avowedly
as a supporter of the Proletarian Dictatorship. My
impressions will therefore be coloured by my
essentially working-class outlook. Britishers owe
it to themselves to know all that can be known
from whatever point of view of the great experi-
ment in Russia. I will divide my observations
into four parts, dealing very briefly and indicatively
with what appear to me to be four outstanding
questions. The parts will deal respectively with
'' Lenin and World Revolution," '' The Militarisa-
tion of Labour," '' Russian Capacity for War " and
"^ Impressions in General."

dM^i&^A

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 11

Someone who knows the foremost figures in
European bourgeois and Socialist politics as well
as any other said quite recently, '* The three
greatest men alive to-day are Lenin, Bela Kun,
and Smillie.'' The third 1 know very well, the
first I met at his request! and talked with for two
hours, and then met again some days later with
the rest of the Labour delegation. Lenin speaks
English rather well, and knows British politics
better than most Englishmen. I must confess I
went to the Kremlin with perhaps more trepidation
than I have had when encountering either Mr.
Asquith or Lloyd George. There were several
sentries on the way with rather brutal points to
their bayonets who scrutinised my pass closely as
I went through with the guide.

I found Lenin simple, genial, and entirely with-
out affectation. While he was at work and during
our conversation, a young sculptor was busily
employed on a clay model of Lenin's head, and
had, I subsequently discovered, also taken a sketch
of my own profile. After exchanging greetings we
talked about English and Russian politics, and also
of revolutionary possibilities in general throughout
the '' International."

Lenin in my opinion gives more thought to world
revolutionary possibilities than to gathering
immediately the fruits of the Russian Revolution,
because he has convinced himself, and not without
abundant reason, that a world drama is being
enacted in the struggle )bet!ween a small, alert,
determined, intelligent and thoroughly organised
section representing proprietary interests, and a
large, partially alert but growingly intelligent though
indiflPerently organised mass, representing working-
class or proletarian interests. The spear-head of
this mass, with its brilliant and far-sighted intelli-
gentsia is of course the Russia of Soviet Power.

He talked of the countfr-fOvolutionary move-

12 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

ments of Kolchak, Denekin, Yudenifch, and also of
the British complicity in all these as well as at
Murmansk. There was not the slightest possibility
of these adventures being undertaken were it not
for the promised support of the Allied Powers.

Lenin sees clearly that if the International
Bourgeoisie cannot destroy or drastically modify
the Soviet Power in Russia, Soviet Power and all
its implications and potentialities will undermine
and eventually overthrow Capitalism, Landlordism,
and all that they imply in Western Europe and
America, not to speak of Asia and the Colonies.

Everyone in Russia realises that the Polish
Offensive was enginered by British and French
influence, supported by British and French
direction, training, and equipment, and was part
of a comprehensive and grandoise plan to include
Rumanian and Finnish military co-operation and
assistance from the new Baltic States. Lenin
ridicules the statement of Bonar Law that the
supplies of munitions to Poland were sent in fulfil-
ment of a pledge that they were to be given in
the event of a Soviet attack on Poland. The best
reply to Bonar Law is the statement of Chicherin,
Soviet Foreign Minister, who said that the essentially
moderate terms offered to Poland were held to be
evidence of Russia's internal weakness, which
accounts for the Polish Offensive breaking out when
it did.

Lenin asked about the campaign in favour of
Direct Action promoted by the Triple Alliance in
1919 to compel the British Government to refrain
from further intervention in Russia. He could not
understand the acceptance by the Parliamentary
Committee of the Trades Union Congress of
Churchill's and Lloyd George's assurances that
intervention would cease. The best proof of this
will have appeared shortly after these lines appear,
the delegation having been furnished with the most

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 13

convincing proofs that the Churchill policy of last
year was one of studied and deliberate evasion
and deceit, not only towards organised labour but
towards traditional British Liberalism.

Those who are directing the policy of Soviet
Russia and also the Third International are fully
convinced that most or all the factors which
operated to bring about the economic collapse in
Russia are operating to bring about similar effects
in Western Europe. They watch critically the
growth of the respective national debts. Every-
thing which can be known is duly observed
relating to the class struggle and its intensifica-
tion, especially in industrial disputes and the
unending fight for the share of the product between
Capital and Labour. Lenin foresees that inevitably
there must be established in Great Britain a
Labour Government or Labour-plus-some-other-
Party Coalition. He says that Clynes, Thomas,
Henderson, and perhaps Macdonald and Snowden
must have their opportunity as Kerensky and his
colleagues had in Russia. But he is positive this
attempt will produce as little advantage to the
working-class as the Noske-Schiedemann Govern-
ment in Germany.

While we were in Russia there were also dele-
gates from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, and
Scandinavia, and there appears every indication
that the Geneva Conference, if it be held, will be
the grave of the Second International. The Soviet
idea, based as it is on occupational rather than
residential qualification, gains ground on all hands,
and the policy of Revolutionary Russia as well as
the Third International faces West confronting
Industrial Capitalism instead — as many imagine —
the more economically backward East. Russia's
Eastern policy is one into which she has been
forced, if only to create a diversion for Great
Britain and preventing her from continuing to

14 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

focus counter-revolutionary movements in general.

I shall deal with the other questions in succeed-
ing articles; but let me say clearly here that the
delegation arranged their programme apart from
the official welcomes we received. We went
where we liked ; we interviewed whom we pleased.
We talked without let or hindrance to supporters
and opponents of Soviet institutions alike. We
discussed grievances with workers, technical and
manual.

The Bolshevist experiment is destined to have
the profoundest influence upon the development
of human institutions, and we shall be compelled
more and more to examine critically the Soviet
plan as explained by its supporters and advocates
instead of blindly accepting the denunciations of
its opponents and detractors.

II.—'' MILITARISATION " OF LABOUR.

In practically every country other than Russia,
what is called Organisation of Labour means the
embarrassment and hampering of production and
distribution of wealth. Slur the fact over as we
may, the pitched battle between Capital and Labour
destroys any possibility of genuine co-operation in
production. Capital in general seek constantly to
cut the cost of production by reducing labour
charges. Labour seeks to get as much as it can
for as little as the employer will accept in return.
In Russia, not only is there no difference between
the Trade Unions and the administrative heads of
Soviet affairs, but we find the heartiest co-operation
between the Unions, the technicians, and the
Supreme Council of Public Economy.

As an illustration, I would refer to a visit to a
large locomotive refitting and repairing shop near
Saratov which I made in conjunction with Sverdloff,
Acting People's Commissar for Ways and Com-

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 15

munications. Both he and I impressed on the
workers in the railway shops the supreme need to
accelerate railway work. I could not help con-
trasting the reception given to Sverdloff and myself
and the response to our appeals for discipline with
the acrimonious temper displayed by the Clyde
workers on the occasion of Mr. Lloyd George's
visit during the war, and his appeals to increase
output.

The difference of working-class outlook is deter-
mined by the difference of the grounds of appeal.
Men will make every sacrifice when they know
that it is for national and collective well-being,
and equally will resist attempts to exploit their
generosity for individual gain. To realise the
position in which Russian democracy has been
placed since October, 1917, is clearly to under-
stand their acceptance of Labour Mobilisation.

Karl Radek, one of the influential Communist
Party Leaders, and Secretary of the Third Inter-
national, puts the position with clarity as follows :

If Soviet Russia is to extricate itself from
the economic disorganistatiion its first task is to
rally the scattered forces of the skilled pro-
letariat. If the Socialist community has any
right at all to throw upon the battlefield
hundreds of thousands of workers to shed
their blood in the name of the liberation of
the entire working-class the more right it has
to say to the skilled workers who have dis-
persed to the villages : ** No surprise is enter-
tained at your having fled to the villages to
escape starvation, but the entire country is
doomed to ruin and famine unless you return
to town. Only by increasing the productivity
of locomotive repairs, only by beginning to
create transport means as well as means of
production can we save the Russian v/orking-

16 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

class from death by starvation. Just as you
are bound to fight for and protect Soviet
Russia with arms in hand equally so are you
obliged to extend your credit to the Soviet
Government which is a Government of the
working-class.**

This sounds startingly like a statement by Lloyd
George when he assumed the position of Minister
of Munitions. He then said in effect that it was
necessary for the civil authorities to have the same
control over the men in the workshops and the
factories as the military authorities possessed over
the men in the trenches. We have, moreover, to
bear in mind that Russia's industrial and political
policy is shaped largely if not entirely for her by
inexorable pre-war and post-revolutionary circum-
stances. Russia lived by exchanging food and raw
material for manufactured articles. Since 1917
this process has been suspended. She has there-
fore had tb create <a new resourcefulness and
adaptability in producing the things which she
previously imported. Added to this difficulty it
must be understood that both the first and second
revolutions made a great drain on Russia's urban
proletariate. The men who manned the barricades,
who suffered the most casualties, were the metal-
workers and those other sections of skilled workers
who realised the meaning of the class-struggle.
Their ranks were again depleted by the formation
of the Red Armies, of which they were the
revolutionary leaven. Added to these factors was
the constant migration of thousands of engineering
skilled and semi-skilled workers from the industrial
centres to the agricultural areas because of the
shortage of raw material and of food in the towns
after the Second Revolution.

Mobilisation of civilian labour is carried out by
Communists and trade unionists alike because they

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 17

understand that it is essential if they are to jRght
disease, improve transport, and produce agricultural
implements and manufactured articles to exchange
with the peasantry for the necessary foodstuffs.
Dilution will be developed scientifically and the
bonus system operates in such a manner as to pro-
vide the very best incentive to individual initiative
and effort. Russia can be faced with not even
the remotest possibility of unemployment or under-
employment following upon *' over-production *' as
we are in Western Europe. Credit is due to the
directors of Soviet policy that, following upon civil
war, ringed around by enemies, faced with the
most appalling difficulties, they are embarking upon
vast schemes of social reconstruction. They are
doing more for education than any other country
in the world. They are attempting more in a few
years than economically and industrially advanced
countries have done in a century. Their motto is
'' Through Discipline to Freedom.''

When it became imperative to take the power
from the hands of the bourgeoisie and the remnants
of the feudal class, the trade unions raised the
demand '' Labour Control of workshops and
factories.'* Workshop control by CoUegiates and
Boards of elected Shop Stewards was gradually
found to have outlived the transitional stage from
individual ownership to social ownership, and there
was no hesitation on the part of the Communist
Party and the Trade Unions to modify their policy
to meet changing requirements. They say frankly
that if '' One-man Management " can give us
better and more rapid production of those things
of which we stand in paramount need, then intro-
duce such management without delay. The trade
unions, however, will remain in control of the main
currents of labour and production, but will hand
over the direction of the details of management to
the most efHcient individuals to be obtained.

18 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

With us in this country the processes of pro-
duction and distribution have been socialised while
the product remains individualised. In Russia
both the processes and the product are socialised.

I repeat and emphasise what I said before.
Russia is working out her own social emancipation
according to her own racial, historic, economic, and
industrial needs and requirements. It does not at
all follow that Western Europe should in any way
studiously or slavishly follow the precise lines of
Russia's great experiment. The discipline which
the Soviet Power has beaten out for itself on the
anvil of war and counter-revolution has been
imposed upon our industrial workers by generations
of factory and workshop experience. Revolu-
tionary Russia marches forward steadily and stead-
fastly with a rifle in one hand (so to speak) and
a hammer in the other. The best justification of
'" Industrial Conscription " was and is the
expeditious manner in which she re-mobilised her
Red Armies from industry to the Polish front,
where once more they cover themselves with
military glory.

III.— RUSSIA'S CAPACITY FOR WAR.

Whatever may be said of the Soviet Government
no one can deny their ability in war. After the
decisive overthrow of the Bourgeois in October,
1917, the old army simply fell to pieces. They
had been beaten and broken in the Kerensky
efforts, promoted by the Entente to continue the
Imperialist War against the German, Austrian and
Turkish fronts.

The Brest Litovsk Peace was unavoidable even
had the newly created Soviet Government wished
to continue war operations. The troops had been
badly armed, badly clothed, and badly fed. They
were also disillusioned regarding the Czarist

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 19

ambitions of Imperial aggrandisement. After
the definite Proletarian Dictatorship had been pro-
claimed the directors of Russian policy foresaw tthe
possibilities of either the Central Powers or the
Entente, or perhaps both concentrating their forces
against the working-class Revolutions. They called
again and again upon the workers in Germany,
Austria-Hungary, France, Britain and Italy to
throw over their own respective Landlord-Capitalist
and Imperialist Government. The insistent propa-
ganda of the revolutionary idea did more to sap
the vitality of German Militarism than is yet
generally understood.

While hoping and believing in the ultimate
triumph of the Revolutionary Idea the Russian
Communists are prepared to meet force with force.
They hastily improvised a new citizen army, the
Red leaven of which was the Communist members
of the urban proletariate. Gradually this army
was extended by universal conscription until
to-day ; it is in my personal judgment the best army
in the world. It is the best not necessarily because
it is composed of the finest fighting material, but
mainly because every army is influenced to an
unestimable degree by the motive of the Cause in
which and for which it fights. No army ever
fought in a cause worthier than that which inspires
the Red Soviet Army of Russia. Educational and
political propaganda has been worked to a fine art.
Much or most of what was said in Britain during
1914, 1915, and 1916, in order to obtain recruits
and afterwards to keep up the national war spirit,
was untrue and most of these who said it knew
it to be untrue. In Russia they have merely to tell
the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing else, and
this is the basis and the whole of their propaganda.
We were told by Britishers in Moscow that when
our prisoners from Murmansk were interviewed
they showed evidence of perplexity as well as

20 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

disquiet at the tactics of the Red Soldiery. The
British prisoners exclaimed : '* Let them come
against us with bayonets, machine guns, tanks or
gas and we'll show them what we are made of,
but, gorblimej how can we fight men who offer
us leaflets and pamphlets?"

While members of the Delegation were at the
Polish Front they saw a shell which explodes and
drops among the Poles thousands of leaflets in their
own language telling them how they are being used
as the tools and instruments of the Polish Barons
co-operatJing with the Entente Imperialists, and
headed always with ''Workers of the World, Unite."

During our stay in Moscow Purcell and I, at
the special invitation of Madame Balabanoff , went to
the All-Russian War Department, and spoke with
General Kamenieff, Comm.ander-in-Chief of the
Russian Armies, and Skliansky, who is the Acting
Chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military
Council. The latter, by the way, presented me
with the Military Medal of which so much has
been written.

We talked with military men and were impressed
with the thoroughgoing efficiency of all we saw
and heard. I have met personally the late Lord
Kitchener, and Lord Derby who succeeded him as
Minister of War. I have visited the British War
Office on numerous occasions, and I have no
hesitation in saying that the Soviet military institu-
tions and the atmosphere of competency prevailing
compares very favourably with our own.

We saw the manufacture of light and heavy
artillery, of tanks and aeroplanes, and war equip-
ment in general. Russia, like most other countries,
devotes the best of her constructive powers to
waging war. This policy has been forced upon her
by the concentration of capitalist hatred in Europe
and America. Trotsky, with whom I talked at the
Opera House, Moscow, while not being over-

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 21

sanguine of a speedy triumph over the Poles, said
that cost what it may and take as long as it might,
they would break the Polish military power
irretrievably.

We witnessed numerous military parades and
displays by the garrisons of Petrograd and Moscow
as well as other important military centres. The
personnel of the Army was as good as anything I
have seen in Great Britain during the years of the
war, the officers and men manifesting not only
physique, but a spirit of mental determination.
Through the good offices of our old Socialist friend
Petroff, I talked with many of the Russian soldiers
and sailors, and the question ever on their lips
was : Why are the British workers fighting against
the Russian workers, who only wish to establish
Communism to improve the economic conditions of
themselves and their dependents? Needless to
say, I was middle-stumped by such pertinent
questions.

Purcell, who, being a woodworker, was
interested in the construction of aeroplanes in
Great Britain during the war, says that the aero-
plane factories he saw compare favourably with
anything we had here at that time.

Military service is of course compulsory, and
military training is also compulsory to men between
the ages of 18 and 40. Those bet^veen 14 and 18
have to undergo physical drill as part of their
civil education. Corps of Boy Scouts and Girl
Guides are in existence in all the populous centres.
There is the most devoted attention to the wounded
by the nurses of the Red Army, and one of the
most striking of the banners carried during the
Moscow parade bore the inscription : '' Courage and
endurance to the Red Hospitals." The Red Army
is better-clothed and better-shod and fed than any
other section of the population. While I made
numerous enquiries, with all the tact and discretion

22 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

at my disposal, regarding the numbers of men on
ration strength, I was met always by polite state-
ments that nobody knew and nobody could say. It
would appear, however, that there must be at least
six million men waging war, preparing for war, or
providing material for war purposes.

My own opinion is that the Allies, knowing by
means of their Political Intelligence Department
that Poland had not the ghost of a chance against
Soviet Russia, are pursuing the same plan in regard
to Russia as they found so effective in regard to
Germany : to occupy as much of their man-power
as they possibly could in order to weaken them in
the rear and prevent that social reconstruction
which would make Russia the most favourable
country in the world for the working-class.

Regarding the so-called rival schools of Eastern
and Western Policy, the overwhelming majority of
those who shape Russia's policy turn their eyes
towards the West to the reconstruction on social
lines of the whole of Western Europe. Their
capacity to wage war will be improved by the
recovery of the Donetz basin coal area, and the
occupation of Baku with its millions of tons of oil
for fuel purposes.

In an interesting conversation with Petrovsky, who
is the Director of all the Officers' Training Schools,
he confidently assured me that there was not the
remotest chance of Russia producing a second
Napoleon who might possibly overthrow the Com-
munist Revolution and establish a military dictator-
ship. The bulk of the officers are recruited from
the working-class, and they are inspired with the
Communist idea. There is, moreover, the fact
that the population of the itowns is drilled and
armed and equipped in order to maintain their
control of the workshops and factories. Russia,
in my judgment, could not attempt imperialist wars,
for while the soldiery and more particularly the

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 23

peasantry will fight for defensive purposes, their
morale would be instantly destroyed were a real
aggressionist enterprise commenced.

IV.— THINGS IN GENERAL.

I started the invited series of impressions which
the Mail could not or would not publish without
indicating very much about the actual conditions of
life in Russia. It is the intention of the British
Socialist Party to reprint the four Herald articles
with some amplifications as a pamphlet as early as
opportunity will permit, and those who care can
readily see some phases of Russian life through
the eyes of a proletarian.

In Petrograd and Moscow' one sees every aspect
of City and Metropolitan life completely changed.
The main streets, while being thronged with people
going to and fro, present an outward appearance
of perpetual bankruptcy. Shops, cafes, stores,
hotels are closed and shuttered. To those who
like places such as Bond Street, Regent Street and
Oxford Street, life must be almost unendurable. I
must confess I longed now and then to go into
some place and order a decent lunch or dinner
such as one finds in any capitalist city, but there
was simply '' nothing doing." One of the best
illustrations I can give of the effects of the Revolu-
tion, as compared with conditions under Capitalism,
was the reply given to one of my questions by that
incarnation of the spirit of Working-Class Dictator-
ship, Angelica Balabanoff. I said to her : '' Why
is it that in little Esthonia which is in about the
same latitude as the Petrograd area, and enjoys
the same kind of climatic conditions, there appears
to be an abundance of cheese, butter, eggs, milk,
bacon, etc., on sale in the shops while there is
no evidence of the existence of these things in
Petrograd?" She replied by saying that if I made

24 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

close enquiries among the workers both in Esthonia
,and Russia I would make several interesting dis-
coveries. Firstly, that in Esthonia these nourish-
ing foodstuffs mentioned never appeared on the
tables of the workers. They could not afford them.
Although there appeared to be an abundance on
sale in the shops, it was in fact only within the
reach of the relatively well-to-do sections of the
community. The children of the Reval workers
lived mainly cr entirely on rye-bread as their
parents did, while the middle-class, the bourgeois,
the military heads, and those who by hook or by
crook could put their hands on sufficient Esthonian
marks might eat to repletion. Now, in Petrograd,
and in fact throughout Soviet Russia, whatever
nourishing foods there are at the disposal of the
Soviet Authorities go to the care and feeding of the
children and the invalids, utterly irrespective of
the class to which previously they belonged.
Balabanoff said further imagine, but only for the
sake of illustration, that the bourgeois system were
reintroduced into Petrograd, shops would open as
if by magic, food would appear on the counters and
in the windows, not because any more had been
produced, but the supplies brought on view and
obtained by Landlords, Capitalists and their prin-
cipal supporters would be taken from that which
now goes to the children and the infirm.

All the foregoing was quite borne out by subse-
quent investigations both in Russia and afterwards
on my return journey through Esthonia. Every-
where we went we saw for ourselves conditions
were bad, as we were frankly told, but always we
heard they were much worse in 1918 and 1919.
I consider that the Russian fatalist outlook on life
has helped the people to endure as they have the
terrible privations following on six years of war,
two bitterly contested revolutions and innumerable
counter-revolutionary movements internal and

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 25

external. Most of the distribution of foodstuffs,
boots and clothing is carried on through State
distributive agencies which is an extension of the
work of the Co-operative Movement. Every man
and woman rendering social service is paid in
roubles, and in addition food and clothing cards or
coupons, which enable them to get their supplies
at one-tenth of the price obtaining in the speculative
markets.

The Drama, Opera, the Ballet and Kinema per-
formances are enjoying unprecedented popularity.
I spoke to the leading tenor at the Petrograd Opera
House where they were performing Gluck's
'' Orpheus," and I also spoke to the conductor
of the admirable orchestra. Chaliapin was singing
regularly at the '' Hermitage," Moscov/, and I had
an interesting conversation with Madame Chalia-
pin while in Petrograd. It may interest atrocity-
mongers and others who say that the Soviet Power
has destroyed Art to know that Chaliapin, whom
we heard singing at Reval, and who was perfectly
free to come to London or Paris where he can
command his own price, prefers to go back
to Moscow to sing to the people, and he himself
remains a plain member of the Artistes' Pro-
fessional Union, together with the scene-shifters
and programme-sellers. In my brief talks with
the leading tenor, the conductor of the orchestra,
and Madame Chaliapin, they all unquestionably
agreed that the audiences in Russia are far more
appreciative than they were under the old regime.
The tickets are distributed mainly through the
trade unions and the garrisons, and at such prices
^s bring them within the reach of the humblest
Russian worker. The artistes, in general, agreed
they were not politicians, and concerned them-
selves more with art than politics, and they looked
forward to a period when the population, including
themselves, will be enabled to enjoy the higher

26 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK

standard of living procurable when the nation
devotes its energies to more productive efforts,
rather than — as it is doing to-day — waging war
and breaking down counter-revolution.

The problem of prostitution is being dealt with
in the only really effective way, that is, by destroy-
ing the economic causes of prostitution. The
elite of the demi-monde of course came to Western
Europe as part of the entourage of the nobility and
bourgeoisie. The others, being deprived of their
more or less well-to-do patrons, have perforce to
seek employment in some useful form of
occupation.

Although some of our temperance friends have
said that we have nothing to learn from Russia,
I am convinced that the prohibition of the sale of
alcohol in Russia has led to physical, social, and
moral regeneration. Everyone to whom I spoke
agreed that the revolution could not have been
maintained had the sale of intoxicants been con-
tinued. What will happen after the transitional
period has been passed remains to be seen, but I
come back to Western Europe believing profoundly
that if we have to pass through a revolutionary
crisis prohibition will be absolutely essential
during the period of transition.

To sum up, I believe more and more in dis-
cipline and organisation. Discipline first of all
to break down the capitalist system, and then
strict military and industrial discipline in order to
establish the Socialist or Communist State.

I have to state publicly, in conjclusion, that
although I was appointed in January of this year
as a delegate to the Second International Congress
at Geneva, my experiences in Russia, coupled with
my knowledge of the international movement,
preclude any possibility of my fulfilling my engage-
ment to attend. I think the Second International
worse than useless. It is attempting to erect a

THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 27

new superstructure upon a foundation of sand, and
I shall devote such of my energies and time at
my disposal to working towards the extension of
the Third International. Moreover, Purcell and I,
acting in conjunction with the representatives of
the Italian trade unions, and members of the All-
Russian Trade Union Executive, together with
Zinovieff, have signed an appeal to the leaders of
the Left Wing of the trade union movement to
form an International of the Trade Unions from
the paralysing influence of the Legiens, the
Gompers, the Appletons, and others who were
more imperialist, more jingoistic, and more
chauvinist than the landlord and capitalist class
in their respective countries during the war.

NATIONAL LABOUR PRESS, LTD.

8/9/10 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C.4;

and at Manchester and Leicester.

09954

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

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